April 2011

04/27/2011

In April, I had the opportunity to visit Cuba with a mission team. Our goal was to preach the gospel and help the poor and needy living in the city of Havana.

The trip was fruitful - over three hundred men, women and children trusted in Jesus Christ as their Savior. Hundreds more were helped with their physical needs.

For most people, the story stops there. But the real story in Cuba is not in numbers, it is with the people.

In the late 1950s, Cuba was the crown jewel of the Caribbean. Money flowed into this island nation like it was sea water lapping onshore. The rich and famous from all over the world were either partying in Cuba, or owned mansions and businesses on this thin piece of land just south of Miami. Many Americans joined with this influx of wealth and power and sadly, not all of them were boy scouts.

In 1959, Fidel Castro and the Communists took over Cuba. Within months, the rich, the famous and infamous fled the nation - and took their money with them. Their mansions were seized by the Communist government and are still in use today as museums, social halls, or even public housing units.

When the communists took over, time simply stopped. Strolling down these streets of mansions in Havana is quite an experience. The neoclassic architecture is stunning. Most of these houses are in some form of disrepair, yet their majestic construction can clearly be seen through fifty plus years of neglect. Classic cars are everywhere. Think about it. There are tens of thousands of antique cars from a bygone era rolling through the streets of Havana still running!

Yes, it's still 1959 for Cuba - Progress is a word to be shunned in modern Cuba. Nobody dared to talk with us about politics. Propaganda billboards are everywhere. Fear runs in the blood.

Communism took many things from the people of Cuba - their standard of living, their ability to provide for their families, their dignity and their place in the world economy. Yes, communism set back Cuba fifty years.

In the midst of this human suffering, there is a small spark rising from the hearts of the people. While many of the people live in perpetual poverty, their hearts are longing for the richness of freedom. You can see it in their eyes.

I saw this light and it’s an ember that comes from above, sparked by God Himself. I witnessed this firsthand. The Spirit of God moved in the hearts of the people. Fear was replaced with faith. Depression was chased into the dark shadows and joy and peace took its place.

I spent three days speaking to pastors at their annual conference. The miracle I saw the first day of the event left me stunned. Nearly forty of these men of God converted to Christianity. In other words, they were faking a relationship with their Creator; going through the motions of their religion without having their hearts connected to God. They came to the altar that historic Tuesday morning, healed in spirit. God changed these men in a twinkling of an eye. More than a dozen were planning on leaving the ministry, yet with a fresh anointing of God’s spirit, everyone renewed a real committment to serve God.

Christianity is spreading in Cuba and so is that light. The fire from the spiritual world is growing.

History has taught dictators one important truth. A revival in the hearts of a people cannot be held back by fear, bullets, or bullying.

This is why Christianity is dangerous to tyrants.

No government can stand against God Himself.

History is abundantly clear that the persecution of the church of the Living God only strengthens the faith and resolve of its followers.

There is a revolution brewing in Cuba. It is capable of toppling tyrannical governments. It can shatter the walls of mistrust and bitterness that encapsulates the human soul.

While the Word of God is exploding across Cuba, that same Word is imploding here in America.

The Communist government in Cuba is moving forward with reforms that are bringing more freedom of religion while America is going in the opposite direction, limiting the freedom to worship in public under the false premise of the separation of church and state.

Cuba separated the church from the state by attempting to rid itself of God and the church. It didn’t work.

I pray that our country will see its need for God and turn back to Him before it's too late. Watch Cuba! It’s happening there before our very eyes. Do we have the eyes to see the spiritual revolution to our south or have we been blinded by our materialism, politics, and political correctness? God wants to bring that same revolution north.

04/18/2011

When I was a kid, Easter was all about the Easter Bunny - and lots of candy.

Easter morning greeted me with lots of candy and assorted sugar delights neatly stuffed in a bag on the kitchen table.

The crown jewel in that bag was a huge, hollow Easter bunny almost as big as me! I loved it. I knew that there was more to the story but didn’t really bother to investigate.

I was a kid and chocolate overrules theology every time.

For the Christian, Easter is the most important of the holidays. Easter celebrates the historical event of Jesus Christ rising from the dead. This is at the very heart and foundation of the Christian religion.

Wwhy is it so important that Jesus rose from the dead? Why do Christians from all over the world celebrate it with the fanfare afforded a rock star?

The Bible teaches that nobody can go to heaven unless they are perfect or forgiven for their sins. Since nobody except Jesus Christ lived a sinless life, every soul is in need of forgiveness so they will be allowed entrance into heaven.

There is no sin in heaven. In fact, there is no suffering, pain, or tears in glory. Since God created the earth and heaven, He has devised a plan to get imperfect people into a perfect place without staining heaven itself. The plan was simple. He sent His son to the earth to point people to the Father. Jesus lived a perfect life for thirty-three years and was then sentenced to death for blasphemy because He claimed to be God.

Jesus died on a Friday, Good Friday. The historical record of this event cannot be denied. Even if He had not come back from the dead by His own power, the world would probably have known Him as a great prophet or teacher. Many today limit Him to that role, yet history and the Bible clearly portrays Him as risen from the dead. Why is this element so important to the story? People simply do not come back from the dead! Death is truly the final frontier. Death is final. The only way that a person could logically come back from the dead by their own power is to be God Himself; and that is exactly what Jesus clamed. He proved it by coming back from the dead. Many refuse to believe it, and many more will give the idea lip service. Yet, the heart of Christianity is the death, burial, and for this blog, the resurrection of Jesus Christ.

Christ's resurrection proves the authenticity of His message. The resurrection gives power to the Words that He spoke. The resurrection verifies that Jesus was the Son of God. It upholds the central theme of the New Testament that faith in Christ brings eternal life.

Jesus Christ claimed to be the only way to heaven. He said that He offered the keys to heaven. He said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No man comes to the Father except through Me.”

Heaven is for those who have their sins and faults forgiven by the Messiah of mankind. Jesus would not be qualified to forgive sin unless He proved that he was on par with God. To prove such a statement, He had to come back from the dead. And that is why Easter is so very important and is the crux of the Christian message.

The Easter bunny is cute and candy is wonderful. Kids waking up to a nice display of candy and enjoying Easter egg hunts don’t take away from the Easter tradition but it certainly should not replace the message. The Bible calls it “good news”. The good news is really the best news that anybody living on planet earth could get.

Heaven is real. Hell is real.

Jesus claimed (and proved by the power of the resurrection) to be the Lord of the earth, the Creator of the universe, and the Master over mankind. His perfect life on earth, His three days in the grave, and His rising from that tomb uniquely qualifies Him as the One the Old Testament points toward as the Messiah. The New Testament tells this story in the gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. The rest of the New Testament shares with mankind throughout history the beginning of the Christian Church; the theology, mind, and heart of God; and the story about the end of the world and the Second Coming of Jesus Christ.

Without Easter, Christianity has no power. If Jesus didn’t rise from the dead, there would be no need to be in church. Christians might as well change religions or give up on religion itself. Easter is to Christianity what a football is to a football game. Easter is to Christianity what electricity is to our modern society. The resurrection is the judge looking at the defendant and having mercy on him and pronouncing him, “NOT GUILTY”.

Easter offers hope to the lost soul in the sea of pain and pressure that permeates this world. Easter shouts from the public address system at the football stadium that the last touchdown has been scored and the home team wins.

This Easter, remember the pain and suffering that the Lord went through to offer us our places in heaven. He did so that we could be forgiven.

The central message of Christianity is that Jesus took the punishment we deserve for the sins and wrong that we commit. He died in our place. He came back to life to prove His message. He lives in heaven where He wants you to be. According to the Lord, we can’t get there without Him. I hope this Easter is the most meaningful Easter you have ever experienced.

The candy is nice, the chocolate is wonderful - but the message is the best news one can get. Allow the Easter message to truly change you this year. Go worship God, believe, and be changed forever!

04/11/2011

Many people get lost in all of those zeros and simply decide to trust our politicians to do what is best for us. I don’t think we can do that anymore. And somebody must pay the bills when they come due.

The ills of a society that allow for explosions of personal and national debt are symptoms of a 'me generation' - and a sign of how far we have moved away from God's plan. What will it take to make it right for our families, for our country and with our God?

Imagine it is ten years from now. The debt is 25 trillion dollars. That is $25,000,000,000,000. Interest rates have steadily risen as the people and countries that buy our debt want more for the risk they are taking. This is economics 101. The numbers above are real and not fiction. This is the dangerous, foolish course we are on. Interest rates are hovering around 7%. Multiply 7% by 25 trillion dollars and you get 1.75 trillion dollars. This is the interest we will pay on that debt. Today, the United States Treasury took in just over 2 trillion dollars. I believe it is a stretch to believe the economy will recover substantially with the current and future debt levels hovering over us like a ton of bricks. Therefore, almost every dollar of tax money ten years from now will go to interest on the debt. Before we get to that point, our country will either go into bankruptcy or we will print the money out of thin air which will lead to hyperinflation. Both scenarios spell disaster for the United States of America.

Debt, by definition, is wanting something NOW and paying for it LATER. Today in the United States, we can have it our way no matter if we have the money or not. We yank out the credit card and sign away, we sign loan documents for a car we can’t afford, or we go to a high interest lender on the street corner strip mall. We must have it now! Why wait? Instant gratification is the hallmark of the “me generation.” Our materialistic culture has permeated every area of society including the church itself.

The message of the Bible is exactly the opposite:

We are to think of others before ourselves.

We are to give to others without regard for what we will receive.

Waiting for rewards is a trait of godliness. Debt is seen as self-gratification and unwise while saving is considered intelligent and unselfish.

The Bible teaches that nations who borrow from other nations will be the tail and the nations lending the money will be the head. In other words, the nation that borrows will become the slave to the nation that lends them the money.

Our national debt is a reflection of the spiritual condition of our nation as a whole. This is a spiritual issue because the Bible teaches that we are not to covet our neighbor’s property.

I believe God has an intense desire to see this nation return to her spiritual roots. This movement of God will result in a spiritual rebirth and reawakening of Americans of all stripes and colors that will rock Washington D.C.

God wants this more than you could possibly imagine. Yet, in the end, Americans must want this before it will transpire.

We must recognize the heights that we have fallen and desire to change before the power of God will heal our nation.

Until then, the debt will continue to spiral out of control. We are less than a decade (and maybe a lot sooner) from the day of reckoning. Too many Americans are trusting their politicians and have turned a blind eye to the crisis lurking in the distance.

Some may think I am fear mongering. Some may know we have a problem but don’t believe that it will come to this. I challenge you to run the numbers. We have over 14 trillion dollars of debt on the books. In five years, our government is projecting that number to shoot past 20 trillion dollars. In ten years, the debt is projected to be around 25 trillion. I believe those numbers will be higher. Why? When was the last time the government underestimated the cost of anything? We finance our debt as if it were an adjustable rate mortgage. So as interest rates increase, the cost of our debt skyrockets. As the debt increases, it will cause interest rates to rise also.

Return to the principles of the Bible. Don’t spend what you don’t have. Get out of debt. Don’t covet what your neighbor owns. If enough people in America would try these principles and only vote for politicians who will uphold these truths, maybe the disaster can be averted. I hope this happens. I doubt it will.